The Lars J. Halling Jr. diaries are in two handwritten volumes, each 4 by 6.5 inches.

The 1896 diary, beginning on November 27, is about Halling’s journey from Grover, Wyoming, to Scandinavia, where he served his mission. He landed in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 27, 1896, where the mission office assigned him to preach in Norway. He didn’t speak the language upon his arrival, but must have learned it eventually because he had many teaching stories. He traveled by rail and by horse-drawn sleigh. He lived at the homes of members and always recorded how many children each family had. He commented on the weather in his diary every day and looked forward to rare days of sun. Some cities he preached in were Trondheim, Ramfjorden, Baldsfjorden, Tromső, and Skjeppestad, Norway. The diary entries, 131 pages long, in this volume end on October 29, 1897. The last 16 pages hold financial records, addresses of Norwegian Saints, and a tree leaf.

The front cover of Halling’s 1906 diary has three pictures of small children; one photograph is labeled “Osmond Halling.” The first 80 pages of the book are meeting attendance records; the last 26 pages are Halling’s diary in tiny cursive writing. Lars J. Halling went to Scandinavia on a second mission in 1906. He left Grover, Wyoming, on November 27 and landed in Copenhagen on December 22. His mission president’s name was Sören Rasmussen. He baptized some people in Denmark; he had to cut the ice off of the water before some baptisms. His wife wrote him on his mission and he sent her gifts. He preached in Christiana, Randers, and Hjöring, Denmark, before traveling to Norway. He went to a police station in Norway where he learned that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not recognized as a Christian church, and that administering the sacrament and baptizing were both against the law. However, he didn’t seem to be forbidden to hold meetings; by advertising for them, he was able to find people to teach. He had to rent a hall for Church meetings. He described a Norwegian holiday on May 17, 1907, and saw Norwegian soldiers doing drills and practicing with cannons. The last entry was written in Norway on March 1, 1908. The mission sounds like it was very successful.